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Most Americans do not want to spend scarce

public funds incarcerating nonviolent marijuana

offenders, at a cost of $23,000 per year. Politicians

must reconsider our country's priorities and attach

more importance to combating violent crime than

targeting marijuana smokers.





Marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers at least

$7.5 billion annually. This is an enormous waste of

scarce federal dollars that should be used to target

violent crime.





Marijuana prohibition makes no exception for the

medical use of marijuana. The tens of thousands of

seriously ill Americans who presently use marijuana

as a therapeutic agent to alleviate symptoms of

cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, or multiple sclerosis risk

arrest and jail to obtain and use their medication.



Between 1978 and 1996, 34 states passed laws

recognizing marijuana's therapeutic value. Most

recently, voters in two states -- Arizona and

California -- passed laws allowing for the medical

use of marijuana under a physician's supervision.

Yet, states are severely limited in their ability to

implement their medical use laws because of the

federal prohibition of marijuana.



America tried alcohol prohibition between 1919

and 1931, but discovered that the crime and

violence associated with prohibition was more

damaging than the evil sought to be prohibited. With

tobacco, America has learned over the last decade

that education is the most effective way to

discourage use. Yet, America fails to apply these

lessons to marijuana...